Friday 18th September

First I’d like to offer a correction to last weeks blog. I said The headline band on the Thursday at The Lindisfarne Festival were “The Pretenders.“

This was either brain freeze on my part or rogue predictive text as it was , of course, “The Proclaimers”.

Also, apologies to Col and Margaret who heard most of the contents of this blog in the pub last night as we had our now annual catch up whilst they are up here on holiday. 2 hours is never enough as usual but it was great to see them. 

This is the shortened version believe it or not. 

Last weekend we went down to Chesterfield to help my daughter Alice out whilst her husband was away. We were going to batch cook some meals and look after Archie. The trip down on Friday morning wasn’t particularly good and it took us ages. We had arranged to meet our friends Sarah, Matt, Rob and Ali in a pub and have our tea there. Natasha’s mum Marissa came too and after a few drinks, a meal and a good catch up we went back to her house where we were staying . We were chatting when we received a phone call from Dylan’s girlfriend Scarlet who was in Manchester A&E with Dylan who had tripped on his way back from Chester Races whilst getting in an Uber and suspected that he had broken his ankle. They were waiting for his X-Ray. 

In the meantime we decided to go to bed. Whist in her room, Marissa lost her balance, fell awkwardly and hurt herself badly. So badly that we called 999 and having originally been told it could take 6 hours to get an ambulance the pain in her leg got worse and a further phone call escalated the response to urgent and they arrived in 20 minutes. They immediately suspected a broken hip. They spent 2 hours making her comfortable enough to move her before taking her to hospital. Natasha followed in the car. 

She was X-Rayed and confirmed the broken hip. Natasha got home at 4am and after a long wait Dylan and Scarlet got home at roughly the same time!

After a weekend of hospital visits, dog walking and visiting Alice we knew we had to get home on the Sunday. Marissa finally received an operation on Sunday morning and had a metal rod fitted in her hip. She was going to spend at least a week in hospital (if not longer). 

During the week Natasha has been in regular contact with her and recovery is progressing slowly but surely. There’s a lot to consider including arrangements for her aftercare but fortunately we have an expert as that is what Natasha does for a living.

During the week I got back to some painting. I painted 24 watercolour cards for Jetty Gallery and having ordered some more blank cards and envelopes got them ready to send. I also painted 10 Cornish seascapes for The Jane Adams Gallery in St Just. I’m waiting for the mounts to arrive. They’re with Evri at the moment but based on my recent appalling service from them I’m not holding my breath. With Luna in Doggy Daycare on Thursday I managed to nearly complete a large 36” x 24” Lake District painting. It was good to get back in the studio for the first time in ages. 

Dylan was supposed to be spending this week at home before moving to Manchester to live with his girlfriend, her sister and boyfriend in a lovely apartment, this weekend. However, due to his ankle injury and hospital appointments, he has had to spend the week in Manchester. On Wednesday morning, early we received a message from him which to say the least was disturbing? He messaged”We’ve been raided by the police?”  Apparently at 5am they were awoken from their sleep by a loud noise and then lots of shouting as the police first sawed their front door in half then, in full riot gear, armour and weapons,  charged into the house shouting “police, Police” . To say they were terrified is an understatement!

They were marched down to the living room and given a warrant. However it soon became apparent that these 4 law abiding citizens were not the drug dealers the police were after. They had been the previous tenants! With a badly repaired front door and 4 very traumatised young people the hit squad left! …….you couldn’t write this stuff. 

Natasha’s off to Chesterfield again this weekend but I’m staying here with Luna.

We’re looking forward to a less crazy week next week.